BAONG SIBOL: Ibang-iba ang Pinoy!

LAOAG – Working as a unit and brandishing state-of-the-art equipment, Team Vellum ruled the rain-drenched Team Trial lap that started in Vigan, Ilocos Sur and ended infront of the provincial capitol here to seize the overall team lead in the 2007 Padyak Pinoy Summer Showdown.

Skippered by prologue winner Frederick Feliciano, Team Vellum submitted the fastest time of one hour, 48 minutes and 51.01 seconds to edge Champion and Wow Magic Sing in this 11-day, 10-stage event presented by Tanduay in cooperation with Wow Magic Sing and Air21.

Champion, led by last year’s Tour winner Santy Barnachea, checked in a minute and a second later while the Victor Espiritu-led Wow Magic Sing came in third some 30 seconds later.

“We’re blessed we have the best equipment here,” said Vellum coach Cesar Lobramonte in Filipino.

Aside from the high-tech bikes, Lobramonte said the aerodynamic helmets, costing P20,000 each, brought in by team owner Ernesto Hortaleza was also a big factor in the team’s victory.

“It really helped a lot so we’re really thankful to our boss, who brought the helmets straight from Manila,” added Lobramonte, who was coach of former Tour champion Bernard Llentada.

Teamwork also proved to be a key.

“It was also a big factor, my boys rode as a team,” said Lobramonte, whose wards included Eusebio Quinones, March McQuinn Aleonar, Ray Martin, Roderick Acosta and John Michael David.

Kennedy Guinoo crashed out early in the stage after a spill while another team member Rolando Burgos didn’t start.

Team Vellum thus surged ahead in the standing with a total time of 55:33.27.431, a minute and 57.049 seconds ahead of former leader Cossack Vodka and over four and a half minutes up on Baler Ravina and Cool Pap riders.

Rounding up the upper half of this 12-team field were Mail & More, Champion and Caltex, which submitted an overall time of 55:38’30.500, 55:38’52.691 and 55:42’02.572, respectively.

In Team Trial, teams of eight members leave the starting line one by one with a five-minute interval with the time of the fourth rider counting as the team’s clocking.

Cossack Vodka, which won last year’s team title under the Guerrero brand, finished only sixth.

“I told my bosses we would have a hard time winning this lap because unlike other teams, we didn’t have the state-of-the-art equipment,” said team captain and former champion Renato Dolosa, who retired four years ago after losing his bike in the Baguio stages of the Tour 2003.

Despite the lowly finish, Dolosa said he was satisfied with how his team performed using standard bikes.

“I’m still satisfied with our performance in this stage,” Dolosa said. “We would have been a little bit closer had some of my riders didn’t suffer flat tires.”

Dolosa, however, remains confident of their back-to-back title bid.

“Our main focus here is not the individual honors but the team championship. If we stick to our plan, we’ll have a chance of making history because in my experience, no team has won a back-to-back Tour title,” he added.